Bangladesh bags orders worth $250m in world's biggest shipbuilding fair

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Mushir Ahmed
Bangladesh made a big impact in the world's biggest shipbuilding fair in Hamburg, bagging export orders worth US$250 million and carving a niche among the nations of ship manufacturers, officials said Saturday.
The country's pioneering shipbuilders, Ananda Shipyards and Slipways led the way, taking fresh orders for 10 ships and starting negotiations for dozens more vessels.
"Bangladesh was the buzzword at Hamburg," said Abdullahel Bari, the chairman and the managing director of Ananda, the country's first and the largest ocean-going ship building company.
"They are amazed at our progress. The stalls of our companies were overflowed with inquiries," he said.
The Hamburg fair, called the SMM, draws hundreds of shipping companies and shipbuilders from all over the globe. Its latest biannual edition ended last week.
Three German companies ordered the ships just days after Ananda completed the export of its first oceangoing vessel, Stella Maris, to a Danish company.
The ten ships weigh 7250 tonnes each and have an order price of over $170 million, Bari said.
The company also bagged export orders for four more ships from a French shipping company, with each weighing 7100 tonnes and costing over $15 million each.
With the latest signings, Ananda's total 'confirmed' export orders have now crossed $400 million.
The Meghanaghat-based company was first to convince western clients that Bangladesh was a prime location for building small ships thanks to its abundant cheap labour and traditional expertise.
It landed its first orders from Danish and German shipping companies in early 2007 and never looked back
Western Marine, the second Bangladeshi company to have built ocean-going ship, also signed a memorandum of understanding with a French company to build four ships.
Company managing director Shakhawat Hossain told FE by phone from London that each of the ships weigh 5200 tonnes and be delivered by 2012.
"The exhibition was a huge success. We talked to a lot of companies about building ships. A lot of people now know that we're now seriously in the shipbuilding business," he said.
With the signing of MoU for the four ships, Chittagong-based Western Marine will have export orders of 21 ships and they are now worth $210 million.
C.F Zaman, the Bangladesh head of German ship inspection company, Germanischer Lloyd (GL), visited the fair and took part in some the negotiations on behalf of the local shipbuilders.
"It was a huge success as far as the future of Bangladesh's shipbuilding industry is concerned," Zaman said.
Zaman's company certifies each of the ships now being built in the country and is a crucial part to ensuring export orders for the local companies.
"Our companies have been flooded with inquiries and orders. We've been able to convince them that Bangladesh is the next shipbuilding hub," he said.
GL would inspect the 10 ships each weighing 7250 tonnes that Ananda signed with three German companies during the four-day fair, also known as Shipbuilding and Machinery Exhibition.
Zaman said four other companies, Khan Brothers, Karnaphuli Shipbuilding, Dhaka Shipyard and Bengal Electric, also made breakthrough during the fairs.
Ferdousur Rahman, senior general manager of Khan Brothers, said his company was in the final stage of negotiations with three German and French companies for building 32 ships, each weighing between 5000-8000 tonnes.
The company is building the country's largest shipbuilding yard at Meghnaghat on a 50-acre land and has already completed civil work for the slipways.
"We will complete negotiations in the next two months. Hopefully, we can start building ships within the next six months," Rahman, who earlier worked at Ananda, said.
Dhaka Shipyard and Karnaphuli, which had successfully built tugboats for the Chittagong Port, have also finalised negotiations with French companies, said Zaman.
"It was the first big presence by Bangladeshi companies in the fair. And all I can say is that finally, we have shown to the shipping world that we're now a serious shipbuilder," Zaman added.